Secret Santa
by justanoutlaw
Summary: Neal goes on the hunt for the perfect gift for his sister.


Merry Christmas, everyone! Finally, Day 12 of Charming Family Christmas. This is also my Charming Family Secret Santa gift for iamnotthrowingawaymyship.

* * *

It all started off with Emma's idea. She had never grown up with a commercialized Christmas and was reminded of something she had done at her last group home as a teenager. They played Secret Santa, getting each other gifts. For some, it was their first Christmas present ever.

Emma brought it up when she saw just how much the holidays stressed her parents out. She wasn't sure what they'd say, but they were all for it. David's Christmases had never been grand affairs growing up and under the curse, neither had Snow's. Neal was super excited over getting to pick out someone's present and Henry had done the gift exchange a few times with some friends, so he was all for it as well.

On the first day of December, they drew names. Neal was surprised to get Emma's, he had no clue what to get for her. He was only 7-years-old, but had a good grasp on what everyone else liked. Henry was a big fan of books, his mom had been really into knitting recently and his dad was an avid movie collector. Emma was a bit of a mystery. Obviously, she wasn't into materialistic possessions. She had a nice jacket already and wasn't really a reader nor a knitter. She liked movies, but she didn't seem that interested in DVDs.

Armed with the money he had saved up from his allowance over the year, he roamed Main Street. He had Henry's cell phone to communicate with his parents if needed, but he really wanted to do it on his own. Nothing stood out to him as important and before he knew it, it was time to head home.

That night, they were all busy decorating the tree. Snow grinned when she picked up an ornament, showing it to Neal. It had a picture of him as a baby, with the words "Baby's First Christmas" scrawled across the top.

"Look Nee," she said. "We got this for you on your first Christmas."

"You were so small," Emma remarked with a smile.

"I think I have a similar one at my other mom's," Henry said. "She puts it on our tree every year."

Neal looked over at Emma. "Do you have one?"

She paused for a moment, trying to be careful with her words. "You know I didn't grow up with Mom and Dad, Neal. Maybe I had one at some point, but I don't anymore." He didn't know all the details of the curse just yet nor Emma's time in the foster system. It was hard to explain to a 7-year-old that she had a family for the first few years of her life but was then tossed to the side. Who knew if that family had gotten an ornament like that for her? It didn't matter much anymore.

Neal saw the look on Emma's face. She didn't have a lot of stuff from when she was younger. Snow and David had put a whole memory book together for him, but they didn't have one for Emma. He still didn't quite understand why they had been separated for so long, but he did know it meant she didn't have a lot of stuff he did. The main thing she seemed to have was a baby blanket knitted by Granny, she had made one for him as well as his Christening gift.

He remembered Gideon saying that his dad had a lot of people's stuff from their old lives. Maybe, just maybe, he'd have Emma's old ornament.

After school the next day, he took a detour from the bus stop to the station where he was supposed to report. He walked into the pawn shop, carefully walking up to the counter. Rumple smiled down at him.

"How can I help you?"

"Gideon says that you have stuff from people before the curse."

Rumple nodded. "That's true."

"Do you have anything of Emma's? Like an ornament from when she was little?"

"I'm afraid I don't have anything like that. I have other people's things because we were all from the same land. Your sister grew up in this realm."

Neal frowned. "Oh."

"What kind of ornament were you hoping to find?"

"Me and Henry have Baby's First Christmas ornaments, with our pictures in them. Emma said maybe she had one as a little kid, I thought it'd be a good present."

Rumple paused for a minute. "Wait right here."

He went into the back and returned a few moments later. He placed a memory book on the counter.

"This belongs to Henry, he gave it to me awhile back because it has a lot of pictures of my son, Bae," he explained. "But it also has some ones from before they found him." He flipped through a few pages and stopped. "This isn't your sister's first Christmas, but it is from her first with your parents."

Neal peered down at the picture. Emma stood in front of the tree, in the middle of their parents. She was smiling as they looked down at her with all the love in the world. It wasn't a baby picture by any means, but it was her first Christmas, technically.

"How much do you want for it?"

Rumple chuckled. "Consider it my good deed for the day," he said, handing it over to him.

The next day, Neal tagged along to the mall with his parents while they did last minute shopping. While they picked out wrapping paper, he found an ornament that nearly matched his own, except it was purple. He bought it without his parents' noticing and was so excited to wrap it.

Christmas morning, the family gathered by the tree after Regina dropped Henry off. They started to exchange presents. David had gotten Henry a new book he had his eye on, Henry had gifted Snow some knitting supplies, Emma bought David the original Star Wars trilogy on DVD and Snow gave Neal a set of Marvel superhero action figures. Neal hesitantly handed Emma her gift. She smiled at the messy wrapping job and carefully opened it. Her mouth dropped open as she marveled at the ornament.

"How did you get this picture?" She asked, tracing their faces.

"I had some help," Neal said with a shrug. "Do you like it? I know it's not your first Christmas, but it was your first with Mommy and Daddy."

"Neal, I love it. This…this is one of the best presents I've ever gotten. Thank you, bud." She knelt down to his height, throwing her arms around him.


End file.
